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The purpose of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) is to protect the rights of students with disabilities and to assure that all students receive equitable access to a free and appropriate public education; yet there are explicit exclusions written in the law for students who may have experienced environmental, cultural, and economic disadvantages. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used to study Section Four of the exclusionary clause of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) that states students must be excluded from identification if their learning difficulties are primarily the result of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. The Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) was borrowed from water governance policy analysis to provide a theoretical framework for better understanding the complexity of context and interaction processes in special education policy implementation in Oregon. Survey (n = 100) and interview (n = 6) results showed that 87% of Oregon school psychologist respondents demonstrated some level of non-compliant behavior on Section Four implementation. Barriers to implementation included unclear state and federal guidelines, lack of measurable terms, unclear roles and responsibilities, external pressures to find students eligible, and lack of confidence that Section Four can be applied in every case for 69% or more of the sample. Recommendations for future research include defining the Section Four terms, developing a measurement tool with cut offs, and training to improve implementation; however, there is concern that this may be an impossible task. Recommendations were made to develop a state level Task Force to begin the dialogue; however, future research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of validity of CIT, definitions of Section Four terms that are measurable, identification and definitions of the mitigating mechanisms in the determination of Section Four for appropriate and possible implementation. A supplemental spreadsheet file included with this dissertation was used to illustrate the coding and mapping of Ochoa, Rivera, & Powell (1997) factors onto CIT categories.

The pressure to have students perform well on standardized tests can serve as a stressor to some teachers in their efforts to autonomously teach their students, particularly those of low socioeconomic status (SES). However, the relationship between teachers' sense of autonomy, teachers' attitudes and behaviors, SES, and student's academic success remains unclear. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between teachers' autonomy to make decisions about classroom teaching practices and specific science curricula, school-wide student achievement in science, and students' SES. Freire's empowerment theory served as the theoretical framework. The research questions investigated the extent that student SES background moderated the relationship between teacher autonomy, curricula, and school district science achievement. Data sources were student Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test science achievement scores and teacher autonomy data from 108 eighth grade science teachers in 16 school districts. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression analysis. Results revealed no significant relationships between eighth-grade science teachers' perceptions of their autonomy, teaching practices, their science curriculum, and district eighth-grade science achievement scores (p > .001). Although the results were not significant, this study provides insights into 8th grade science education which may benefit students, teachers, and administration. Factors such as SES and teacher perception of autonomy can be advantegeously considered in science classes to increase student achievement. Such considerations can influence positive social change by increasing the science capacity of students at all SES levels.

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Created in 1965, Head Start is the longest running national school readiness program in the United States. Head Start was developed to improve children's social and academic readiness for kindergarten and to reduce the academic achievement gap between impoverished and more affluent children. However, questions about the effectiveness of Head Start have trouble the program since its inception. Head Start children often experience considerably more sociocontextual risk, specifically in the form of more economic disadvantage, maternal psychological distress, and dangerous neighborhoods. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the extent to which attending Head Start buffers children from some of the harmful effects of sociocontextual risk on their acquisition of academic and social school readiness skills. Socio-contextual risk factors were largely unrelated to the school readiness skills. Only mothers' reports of anxiety were significantly associated with slower rates of increase in children's PPVT scores, suggesting that mothers who are more anxious have children who are not developing receptive vocabulary scores as quickly as children whose mothers have fewer anxiety symptoms. Head Start did not buffer the impact of socio-contextual risk on children's attainment of school readiness skills. A secondary goal of the present study was to validate mothers' reports of neighborhood danger with interviewer impressions of neighborhood safety and objective crime reports. Interviewer impressions correlated significantly with mothers' reports of neighborhood danger and official crime statistics. Interestingly, official crime statistics were not correlated with mothers' reports of neighborhood danger, but were correlated with interviewer impressions. Interviewers may provide a valuable objective perspective of characteristics of the neighborhood. This sample was not intended to explore the effects of natural disasters on household structures, maternal psychopathology, or children's academic development. However, results clearly highlighted the need to empirically consider the specific challenges associated with lowincome families after a natural disaster. Study implications and promising directions for future research are discussed.

The overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in crime has been an issue of debate. Some evidence, however, has shown that racial differences in offending are largely accounted for by economic disadvantage. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 4,290), the relationship between race and delinquency was examined looking at social disorganization factors. It was hypothesized that there would be racial and ethnic differences in delinquency and that these differences would be accounted for by social disorganization factors, specifically collective efficacy and economic disadvantage. The results show that compared to White adolescents Hispanic adolescents have increased odds of nonviolent and violent delinquency, and Black adolescents have increased odds of violent delinquency. Contrary to expectations, social disorganization factors did not account for the racial and ethnic differences in delinquency. Unexpectedly, higher levels of collective efficacy actually increased the odds of violent delinquency.

Mentoring relationships can be defined as an interaction between a less experienced individual, called a mentee or protégé, and a more experienced individual known as a mentor. The relationship that the mentee and the mentor establish is one that provides influential and emotional support. Research suggests that mentoring relationships have a positive effect on children in group homes. Although children in group homes may not have strong support from their biological families or kin, they often count on the undivided support from their counselors. For this study, group home stakeholders (director, counselors and children) were supportive of developing a formal mentoring program as part of the group home experience. / Master of Science

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The dissertation focuses on the parental attitudes about education of their children during transition from pre-primary to primary education. The study focused on families without identified socio-economic disadvantage whose children were not enrolled in kindergarten. The research design was a longitudinal multiple case study of seven families located in the Liberec region. Data was gathered at multiple points during the children's transition from the kindergarten to primary school. The study focused on the reasons that led parents gave for deciding that their children would either participate in non-regular pre-primary education within nursery schools or not attend the pre-primary classes at all. The study inquired about: parents' general attitudes about pre-primary education; their views on the right educational path for their children; and their self-reported approach to their children's overall development. The study also examined the parents' feelings about the introduction of an obligatory pre-school year and their process of making the enrollment decisions. The results showed that although these families did have some common characteristics, the reasons given for opting not let their children attend preschool, were diverse. Mothers of these children were passionate about doing what's best...